Pamplona bull run festival begins

This morning saw five half-tonne bulls charge down a narrow cobbled street in Spain surrounded by a crowd of sprinting - and some would say insane - thrill-seekers.

The traditional bull run in Pamplona passed off successfully in that no one was gored and only five of the thousands who ran with the five fighting bulls were taken to hospital.

Spain's best-known fiesta has previously seen a lot of bloodshed: 15 people have been killed in the annual 900-yard sprint since 1910 and hundreds have been injured.

In 1995, a bull from the same ranch as those running today gored a young American to death in the early morning run.

"I was about five feet away from them, I was really thinking I was going to get it in the back," Brian Barnes, a 27-year-old engineer from Chicago, said a few minutes after the race

One man was taken away on a stretcher after a bull hit him in the back with the side of its horn and another, who tripped in front of one, had a narrow escape when the animal simply stepped over him.

Ben Dutzar, a scientist from Seattle, fell on the final narrow stretch.

"It scared the hell out of me. When I fell there were two in front and the rest behind me. So I had to get out of there," Dutzar said, showing his bleeding knee and scraped hand.

"You're not even thinking. You're just ... sprinting. The elation at the end of it. You're just ecstatic," said a 23-year-old accountant from Adelaide, Australia, Jim Atkinson.

Former Chicago Bulls basketball player Dennis Rodman was less impressed by the centuries-old run, which herds the bulls from their pens to the bullring for fights in the evening.

"I wish I could've got closer. Hopefully tomorrow I will," Rodman, who escaped with a scrape on his arm, told Reuters news agency.

Foreigners from all over the world take part in the San Fermin festival made famous by Ernest Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises", joining regular Spanish runners, five or six fighting bulls and a handful of steers.

Nearly everyone dresses in the traditional white with red neckerchiefs and sashes. The festival lasts until July 14th.